OAKLAND — City officials moved this week to settle a lawsuit filed by more than 500 police officers who claimed they went unpaid for a number of pre-shift and post-shift activities, including the time it took to dress for their job.

The tentative deal follows three years of legal wrangling and public sparring. The City Council gave its go-ahead to settle Tuesday in closed session after the two sides met with a mediator Nov. 12. For the city, the legal prospects looked dim.

“We would have lost,” said City Councilmember Larry Reid (Elmhurst-East Oakland), head of the council’s public safety committee. “And it would have cost us more money. I think that’s why (we) voted for it “… to minimize the impact of what we would have ultimately had to pay out if we didn’t settle.”

The agreement requires the city to pay $1.75 million in attorney’s fees and costs within a two-year period. It requires the city to give roughly 130 hours of vacation to plaintiffs who are still on the force and to award cash payments of $3,500 to the 50 to 70 officers who were part of the suit who since have retired.

The settlement is subject to final approval by the council Jan. 5. It also must be accepted by 92 percent of the plaintiffs. The court also has to sign off on the agreement.

City Attorney John Russo and attorney Michael Rains battled publicly about the lawsuit on the op-ed pages of this newspaper last fall, with Russo saying it amounted to “little more than a shakedown.” Rains responded by saying Russo didn’t have his facts straight and the city was on the hook for “unequivocal and egregious violations of federal labor law.”

The lawsuit did contain allegations that officers were not rightfully paid for the time it took them to dress for work, but it was broader than many of the so-called “donning and doffing” cases many cities have faced. It also included allegations, for example, that the city had, for years, incorrectly calculated the overtime it paid police.

The suit ended with more amicable words from both sides. For his part, Russo acknowledged the city faced legal exposure and said the Oakland Police Officers Association’s new leadership made settling the lawsuit easier. The lawsuit was brought by individual officers, not the union, but the law firm that represents the union did handle the case.

Rocky Lucia, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the officers could have won a judgment in the “tens of millions of dollars” but instead offered to take vacation because of the city’s budget problems.

Not all were pleased. The council approved the settlement 6-2, with council members Ignacio De La Fuente (Glenview-Fruitvale) and Desley Brooks (Eastmont-Seminary) voting no.

More legal news “…

Oakland will pay as much as $1.5 million for a team of Virginia-based law enforcement experts to keep watch over the Police Department’s reform efforts for up to two years beginning Jan. 21.

The contract was authorized Tuesday by the City Council after the city and plaintiffs’ attorneys in the Riders police misconduct scandal reached an agreement on extending a portion of the seven-year-old Riders settlement. The settlement was designed to bring the department into compliance with a host of mandated reforms on issues such as internal investigations and use of force.

The extension of court oversight was of little surprise after federal Judge Thelton Henderson signaled earlier this year that the Police Department would not meet the terms spelled out in the original agreement.

As Brooks put it: “We’re not just agreeing to this extension because we want to. We’re agreeing to this extension because we have to.”

Part of the extension requires the city to pay for a team of experts to monitor the reform efforts. The Alexandria Group of MPRI, the team that landed the contract, will be led by Robert Warshaw, a former police chief in Rochester, N.Y., and Statesville, N.C., who served as associate director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Bill Clinton.

Warshaw has been tapped as a monitor for a number of law-enforcement agencies, including the Detroit Police Department, the New Jersey State Police, the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Bureau of Police and the Prince George’s County Police Department in Maryland.

People on both sides of the Riders settlement interviewed other prospective teams and agreed on Warshaw’s team.

Oakland police Capt. Benson Fairow said that cost was one factor in determining which group to select and that The Alexandria Group was among the less expensive groups.

The council approved the contract with seven voting in favor. De La Fuente voted no.

Budget meeting

The City Council will meet once more before its winter break to address Oakland’s $19 million general fund deficit.

Councilmember Jean Quan (Montclair-Laurel), head of the council’s finance committee, said the council could take some action on budget changes considered noncontroversial and will discuss some big-ticket options that probably won’t be voted on until early next year.

In November, city staffers proposed closing the $19 million hole without new spending cuts but rather by using one-time revenues and selling city assets — possibly including the George P. Scotlan Convention Center and the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center.

Quan and other council members said it would be better to make some midyear cuts to minimize the city’s long-term problems. Quan also said the time isn’t right to move on the convention centers.

“I don’t see a buyer willing to pay the amount of money they’re worth right now,” she said. “I don’t want to be rushed into it. I don’t think it’s the right decision to make.”

Thursday’s meeting will be held 10 a.m. to noon at City Hall, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza.

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